January 11, 2016
The simple answer to the question, does buying insurance leads work?, is yes. For most insurance agents, it takes some effort to make sure they work for their agency. Just buying leads and assuming that they will work without any additional effort is a recipe for failure. The agents that say that buying insurance leads don’t work, say this because they don’t undertake any additional efforts to make sure they work for their agency. Buying leads alone is not a magical solution to growing your agency. Buying leads along with the strategies below will should ensure that the insurance leads help grow an agent's book of business. 12. Close the Sale. It may seem strange to list this as a tip but you’d be surprised by how many people offer a quote and hope for the best. No, after you give the prospect a quote, you need to push the sale. You don’t even need to be aggressive about it, but a simple, “Let’s set you up with a new policy,” will bring you straight to the matter at hand. 13. Reward and Recognize Top Producers. These are the people responsible for the sales your agency is bringing in. It’s important to praise them for the great job they are doing, not just in flowery words but also with a small (or not-so small) reward or award. You’d be surprised how much a plaque means to some people. But we bet an Apple watch will go a bit further! 14. Thanks for the Business. Always be polite. No, be more than polite. Be downright pleasant and someone the prospect will call when they decide to switch. There are so many reasons why a potential client may decide to stay with their current carrier and policy. However, you never know where a referral may be made and you never know if the prospect may change his/her mind. 15. Practice Active Listening. You learn so much more about your client and what kinds of insurance products they need if you just ask a couple of pointed questions and let them talk. Active listening is when you pay close attention to what’s being said. You’ll then learn all you need to know about what kinds of risks your client needs to avoid. They may start talking about additions to a new home (home insurance) or the fact that they are now renting out their condo (landlord insurance) but are living in an apartment (renters insurance) by the beach where they love to Jet Ski (watercraft insurance).
Insurance Lead Success Strategies:
1. Have the best closers/agents in the office work the leads. One of the biggest mistakes agents make when they are purchasing insurance leads is to have their weakness producers and agents work the leads. This is a waste of money, time and effort. To achieve the best results, agency owners and managers should have the strongest members of the team work the insurance calls and leads they are investing in.
2. Use a CRM system. Sometimes a lead will not close on the initial contact. Most CRM tools will enable you to send regular emails, schedule follow-ups and help agents to actively market to the leads over time. Insurance agents need to be in communications with the insurance lead when they are ready to buy and a CRM will them them do that.
3. Follow-up, follow-up and follow-up again. Sometimes it is necessary to call a lead several times before they are ready to buy. An agent purchasing leads should not expect to close every deal on the first contact. Leads should also be emailed, sent text messages, called and more. Not all insurance buyers like to be communicated with in the same manner.
4. Work the insurance leads with a sense of urgency. When the phone rings with a lead or the insurance lead arrives in an agent's email, the agent should drop everything and move quickly to provide a quote and write the business. If a lead needs insurance, they will contact someone else if they have an immediate need. Working leads with a sense of urgency will improve contact rates, close rations and will enable agents to write more business.
5. Offer available discounts. Since most agents are compensated as a percentage of the policy premium, they will try to sell a consumer the most expensive policy possible, often offering them a suboptimal policy or more than what they truly need. While this may make them more money, they may lose the business if they are not competitive. Agents should offer insurance leads all available discounts and other savings, so that they came be competitive. Just because they have purchased the insurance lead, doesn’t mean that the agent has to make more money on the sales to offset the expense.
6. Ask for referrals. Whenever an agent speaks with a lead or existing client, they should ask for a referral. These referrals will lead to more sales and more referrals. Insurance agents should consider this as they determine the value of the leads they are purchasing. Agents should work these referrals like any other leads that they receive.
7. Expand the scheduled hours the agency is open. Some insurance agents strictly keep to a nine to five schedule and close their office during the lunch hour. Agents need to be available when leads are. They should be available during the standard lunch hour, some evenings and weekends. Agents need to be available during the times when leads have the opportunity to speak with them. We now have a 24/7 economy and if an agency isn’t available when a lead has time to buy, they will lose the business.
8. Communicate with leads in a variety of ways. Some consumers like to receive text message, others like emails. Some even like to come into an agency if they are close. Agents need attempt to communicate with their insurance leads via a multitude of channels. Ideally agents should even give a lead the opportunity to dictate the way they are communicated with.
9. Negotiate. Insurance agents should be prepared to negotiate with the insurance lead to write the policy. Often the first quote may not meet the needs of the insurance lead and the insurance agent needs to be prepared to adjust the quote based on the feedback that they receive.
10. Make a commitment to making insurance leads work for your agency. There are agents who expect to be successful with leads immediately. They will receive a handful of insurance calls and then they will attempt to immediately measure the results and many decide to end the program with limited data. This is a mistake. Insurance agents should make a commitment to figuring it out, to working with their lead company to adjust the type of calls or leads they are buying. They should instead work harder and smarter on using the strategies outlined here. It may take 60-90 days, or longer, to get good at working insurance leads.
11. Utilize a feedback loop to improve pitch and closing techniques. When possible, agents should seek out feedback to get better. Regardless of how long an agent has been selling, it is always possible to get better. Agents should utilize call recordings to get feedback from other top performers and/or ask their lead company for feedback.
Agent Ethan Kosmin Generated over $200,000 in premiums during first year in business thanks to Contact Concierge.
A look at some surprising facts and shocking statistics from the insurance lead industry.
